Recently we've seen several product/service launches in the hosted small-phone-system arena (see sidebar on Natural Convergenceas an example). And while the affect of these so called virtual key systems is another story, we couldn't help but notice that each of the announcements alluded to the fact that small companies, long shackled by the inherent shortcomings of small keys and basic Centrex (their words, not ours), would finally have access to "big company" PBX features and applications.

Maybe that's true. Maybe not. But one thing we do know is that several new premise-based phone systems (along with several new vendors) have also capitalized on convergence and IP Telephony and launched with all the features a smaller organization could ever wish for.

Zultys' (Sunnyvale, CA; 408-328-0450; zultys.com) MX250, we'd suggest, is a perfect example of such a system. Supporting up to (approximately) 250 users, it provides functionality and benefits that traditional small, not to mention large, platforms could only have dreamed about even a few years ago.

As just one example, note that it comes with a built in VoiceXML-based media-processing script generator. That's right. This is the way you maintain its auto attendants and optional audiotext applications.

When we first fired up the MXIE (pronounced "Mixie"; rhymes with Trixie) system-admin software at the beginning of this review, it leapt out at us and we couldn't help but think: how many phone systems, even big ones, provide this kind of functionality out of box; and how many build it directly into a Windows system admin tool that itself provides what we believe is the Holy Grail of converged communications technology - enough flexible control so that end users themselves can truly customize their communications.

The answer is not many. Certainly not in the traditional unintegrated, one-size-fits-all small phone-system market. But vendors like Zultys are finally changing all that.

And they're doing it with a shrug.

The Shrug

Howard Hart, Senior Applications Engineer at Zultys, brought the MX250 and an assortment of their ZIP 4x4 and ZIP 2 IP Phones to our cluttered San Francisco test lab. It didn't take us long to get up and running (as you'll soon hear, Zultys makes the networking very simple). And it also didn't take long to see the shrug.

It happened every time we discovered something cool about the system. Like the aforementioned built generator or the fact that Windows Messenger worked seemingly magically with PCs on our test machines (MX250 uses SIP as does the Microsoft IM accessory) or the presence management stuff or desktop call-control rules or the way the ZIP 4x4s were in essence mini Ethernet hubs/switches/bridges, etc.

We would parrot back the particular feature or functionality at hand and Howard would just shrug, as if to ask, yeah so? And after about the fifth shrug, it hit us: not weighed down in the least by legacy hardware baggage, these guys started from scratch exclusively on the LAN and within the Windows world (the MX250 box and their IP phones actually run under Linux) and all the non-telephony assumptions therein; there was nothing for them "to get."

Of course, the key question for any outside vendor entering the business phone system market with their newfangled invention is do they understand enough of the old world to make sense in the new?

We think Zultys does.

Architectural Overview

The MX250 (or Media eXchange as they call it) is certainly a powerful little 19" 2 RU rack-mountable box (see picture for the general lay of the metal). It combines the functions of an Internet gateway (switch and router) with a PBX (line interface, analog circuits, auto attendant, voicemail and ACD) and adds support for video calls (although we didn't test this - again, it's an extension of being IP and working within Windows so one would assume it would work if you needed it). It uses SIP to communicate with endpoints, including their phones and at least 3Com's and Cisco's IP phones.

It comes standard with two analog FXS circuits (to run standard 2500 sets or, more likely, fax machines) and three configurable slots to accommodate telephony interfaces. You can use modules to connect to analog (FXS and FXO), ISDN BRA (S/T), T1 and E1. You can configure the digital interfaces to carry voice or data traffic or mixed voice and data. Our test box had only one of the slots populated; that with a FXO card which worked with an octopus cable to split out 8 analog lines.

Overall, the system scales up from about 5 to its max. You can have up to 24 analog circuits to connect to PSTN, up to 12 ISDN BRA circuits to connect to PSTN and ISP and up to 4 T1 or E1 circuits to connect to PSTN and ISP.

When you buy the MX250, it has all the hardware necessary to support 250 users. A company under the 250 ceiling expands by purchasing software licenses. You can add these without having to power down the system.

Each user can have up to 8 contacts where he or she can be reached. Any analog phone or SIP device can be a contact. When a user is called, the MX250 can attempt to reach the user at any or all of these contacts, following rules defined by the user (this is set up with the MXIE client - more soon).

Overall, the MX250 can accommodate 1,000 concurrent SIP registrations, i.e. actions of IP devices indicating to the MX250 where they can be reached.

On the Quality of Service front, it implements it at Layer 2 based on the IEEE spec 802.1P. You can define up to 8 priority levels, which lets you stream data into queues, with delay-sensitive traffic like voice getting priority over general data. At Layer 3, QoS is based upon Differentiated Services (RFC 2474 and 2475), although, to be frank, we didn't have the time or the energy to explore fully what Differentiated Services Code Points (DSCPs) were, let alone how they made/make a difference.

Suffice to say, we haven't seen many "telecom system" data sheets that included so much "datacom system" specs as the MX250.

Not that telecom folks will miss anything. On the basic media processing front you can have up to 4 auto attendants and it comes with all kinds of scheduling which is easily managed through the admin MXIE. Voicemail can store 100 hours of speech and you can divvy this up amongst users as you wish.

It of course generates call records for accounting, either with its own built in predefined reports or through Crystal Reports custom formats.

More basic telephony info:

The MX250 supports T1 and E1 ISDN PRA and T1 CAS. The CAS protocols are loop start and ground start with caller ID, and E&M wink with DID. The ISDN protocols are Lucent custom, Nortel custom, US National and ETSI with subaddressing. The BRA protocol is ETSI with or without SPIDs.

The first two analog FXO circuits connect directly to the FXS circuits in the event of complete power failure to provide lifeline support.

The MX250 includes fax termination on any telephony interface. Incoming faxes can be answered by the MX250 and converted to a graphical file which can then be sent by email to a user or retrieved using MXIE desktop software (again, more later).

It provides music on hold through an external connection, from the Internet, or from its internal hard disc (bouncing around amongst its standard wav-based sound files you can see it comes with a library of MOH files). It supports overhead paging using an FXS circuit through its audio plug. It also supports paging through the phones which can be separated into multiple zones.

Zultys also says it supports G.729 compression to reduce bandwidth requirements over a WAN (not tested).

On the data networking side, the MX250 functions as an edge router and supports RIP (version 1 and version 2) and OSPF version 2. It also allows for the provisioning of default routes (used in many cases where the MX250 provides IP WAN access over PPP or Frame Relay).

The system incorporates a firewall with NAT and it also functions as DHCP, TFTP and NTP servers, although you can optionally disable any of these functions if you already provide them with something else (which is likely). Note: the system uses TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) to download basic config parameters to its ZIP phones.

This means that, after powering up, the phones first look for the DHCP server to get an IP address and then the TFTP server specified by the DHCP server. After finding the TFTP server, they load their appropriate configuration files. For our tests, we pretty much based our entire test network around the MX250 center. It was our DHCP server and it took care of the phones. The ZIP 4x4, meantime, made it very easy to expand the network in all directions.

We didn't worry too much about some of the further network aspects. Again, the MX250 has plenty of acronyms to make any network administrator feel right at home. For example, it can provide a SIP application layer gateway (ALG) function when the internal NAT and firewall functions are used. This lets you make SIP calls outside of the private address space used within the enterprise. It can also provide VPN for up to 50 users.

Ongoing Maintenance

The MXIE admin software is the tool one uses to initially set up the system and maintain it over time. It runs under Windows XP or 2000 only (don't even try Win98 as we initially did unless you want random weird errors). You can of course run it from anywhere on the MX250 network. You can even download a copy from the MX250 server itself; just point a browser at the eXchange's IP address and follow the bouncing HTML page (there are links for getting at the desktop client and system log there too).

See the accompanying screen shot for an idea of what it looks like. Suffice to say, we feel it's an incredible system strength. Among other things, you can have multiple administrators and can assign different privileges to each. And while it might take a little time to figure out exactly all the initial setup nuances (particularly the parts about setting numbering plans and assigning devices, and especially if, like us, you just jump right in without any sys-admin manual skimming), we fought our way through it all pretty easily. Resellers will certainly find it very easy to deal with after the first install.

The key part for end users will be the script generator and establishing and maintaining user parameters. In both cases, we found both of these applications very intuitive (see the accompanying screen shot). As for dealing with users, one nice thing is the ability to import bulk user data.

All of the configuration, the voicemail and CDR can be backed up on schedules you set. The admin also lets you monitor the status of any user or device on the system and also status of SIP, CAS and ISDN protocols.

Key Features -

Phones & Unphones

Besides the MXIE admin, the other key ingredient to the MX250 is the MXIE client, which is part of the package, as is integration into other SIP based IM clients and TAPI-based contact management software (including Outlook, Goldmine, ACT and Maximizer).

We stuck with the proprietary MXIE client. Very nice. Among other things, it lets users configure their presence and view the presence of others. As you know, Art Rosenberg and others have been talking about how critical this is in a true converged communications application (perhaps even our killer); MXIE makes it a reality, allowing you to click on users to find out their status and send instant messages.

For yourself, you can easily set up personal call-handling rules through the client. We show this in the accompanying screen shot. Although simple, the embedded call-handling rules editor can be a very powerful communications tool. You can base rules on presence, date and time, or calling party number. You can also transfer calls to an outside number based on who's calling, your status, date and time.

Simple visual voice/fax mail is also available through the client (and also through optional Outlook integration). VMs can be played on the PC, saved to a folder, attached to an email, or forwarded to another user. Users can access fax mail on their PC, print, copy, and forward to other users.

Although functional, this looks like something they kind of threw together and attached without a great deal of energy (why?; because in the semi-standardized world of the LAN, they could), perhaps thinking (probably correctly) that Outlook would likely be the vehicle for a more robust message interface.

For real-time call control, you can use the mouse to do most "telephone" things, which is just a great thing. For example, you can transfer a call to another user by dragging and dropping the call on that person's icon. Just check his or her presence status before you transfer... or send an IM to let him or her know who's on the way. Again, real nice.

In fact, all the way 'round it's a very impressive converged-communications desktop client, especially in the real-time call control and integrated presence departments. And it essentially comes made to order with the system.

So do the phones. And unlike some other new players in the phone system biz, Zultys has this area covered as well.

The flagship desktop device is their ZIP4x4 SIP-based IP phone, named simply because of its four call appearances and four Ethernet circuits. The unit is actually a line-rate Ethernet switch, making it extremely useful in a number of ways.

It includes optional encryption, calculator mode, single button functions, adjustable LCD, full-duplex speakerphone, headset jack, optional Power over Ethernet (an extra Cisco box is required), message waiting indicator, and the QoS support already detailed.

One other thing to note here is the built-in ACD functionality that comes with the system. This includes the ability to create ACD groups with up to 64 agents per group, routing callers to specific groups based on called party number, the use of the MXIE GUI in conjunction with groups (not bad at all for the informal customer service center), supervisor monitoring and a few other features that we didn't delve into too deeply for this testdrive. We saw this mostly in system setup when we were building out the basic system parameters in the MXIE admin app and created a test operator group.

It's there though. And it definitely looks like it could be useful, again, in an informal call-center-like situation. Some of the presence stuff could be used in very advanced customer service applications.

Product Documentation

We received a disc with pdfs of the 246-page Admin Manual plus a separate Install Manual, User Manuals, Quick Start User Manuals and separate manuals and Quick Start guides for both versions of the IP Phone.

Eventually, we got around to reading the Admin Manual. It does a real nice job of detailing the telephony and data sides of dealing with this converged platform. And the nice thing for both Admins and Users is the documentation is available on the MX250 itself and available to users from the MXIE interfaces.

Recommended For

We absolutely recommend this system for organizations or branch offices who require cutting edge communications for 250 users and under. For the pizza shop, it's clearly overkill (plus the user will need a LAN). But for the small company with serious knowledge workers, it's perfect. Techie companies will absolutely love it.

Room For Improvement

We think some of the stuff you need to set up in regards to basic trunking and dial plan could be made easier. There's a lot of flexibility in the system (dialing 9 for outside lines, etc., is a thing of the past with MX250); Zultys sort of makes a lot of optional telephony variables available to anybody who wants to muck with it. But a lot of basic stuff could be streamlined, with links to the advanced stuff tucked away where it won't cause confusion.

Distribution and Pricing

Zultys sells through distribution. But we found a funny paragraph at the start of their Install pdf:

"You can install the MX yourself or arrange for someone else to install it for you. Zultys does not offer installation. If you purchased the MX from a VAR or distributor they will be able to offer you installation services. If you bought the product from Zultys directly you may be able to obtain installation services from a third party contractor. If you have purchased the MX from Zultys and now think that you need assistance to install and configure the system, you should obtain that assistance... Zultys may be able to help you locate a suitable third party to help you, but Zultys and the technical support at Zultys cannot assist you directly with the installation."

We'd suggest that small, technically savvy end users can set this up by themselves very easily and maintain it. Someone will have to deal with it, however. For larger "smaller" organizations with inhouse network administrators, it should be very straightforward to handle without VAR assistance. If nobody at your company knows what a DHCP address is, you should go through a dealer.

You can buy the gear online at their website, although they're quick to point out that "the best pricing and support of Zultys' products are provided through our network of resellers."

As for pricing, we'd suggest you try their online Price Estimator (which is something that also clearly separates them from many traditional telecom CPE vendors):

www.zultys.com/mx250_est_us/entrypageformat.asp

Overall Conclusions:

Obviously, we were very impressed by this system. It's extremely easy to deal with from an administrative standpoint, a fact we think is particularly important considering the system's rich features and the market it's targeted at. The client interface, which has probably only begun to grow, is still one of the most advanced desktop communications UIs we've seen.

If you haven't heard of Zultys before, we believe you will.